Black A B, Lai N Y
Department of Neurology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, South Australia.
Med Law. 1997;16(2):253-67.
We examined the licensing of drivers with conditions likely to endanger the public in a State in which doctors are obliged to notify the licensing authority. During 1991, 1460 medically endorsed licenses were cancelled. A sample of 245, including all 49 with epilepsy were mostly voluntary, the twenty exceptions with retained files being drivers with epilepsy. In the same period, 115 traffic accidents were attributed to illness, with the only four (4) investigated by the licensing authority being those with licenses endorsed "epilepsy" where a seizure was responsible. Compulsory notification appeared to result in the identification of epilepsy as the important medical reason for controlling licenses, but failed to recognise sleep disorders or alcoholism, both more significant causes of traffic accidents. In those accidents attributed to illness, almost no action was taken to review the medical fitness of drivers, suggesting a reliance on doctors rather than police or road safety authorities.
我们在一个医生有义务通知发证机构的州，对患有可能危及公众安全疾病的司机的驾照许可情况进行了调查。1991年期间，1460份经医学认可的驾照被吊销。抽取的245个样本，包括所有49名癫痫患者，大多是自愿吊销的，20份留有档案的例外情况是癫痫患者司机。同一时期，115起交通事故被归咎于疾病，发证机构仅调查了4起，都是驾照上批注“癫痫”且事故由癫痫发作导致的情况。强制通知似乎促使将癫痫认定为控制驾照的重要医学原因，但未能识别出睡眠障碍或酗酒问题，而这两者都是导致交通事故的更重要原因。在那些归因于疾病的事故中，几乎没有采取任何行动来审查司机的医学适宜性，这表明依赖的是医生而非警察或道路安全当局。
